Pretense
by Qwi-Xux
Summary: Through the years following the war, Toph slowly discovers that maybe The Duke has more in common with her than she had ever thought. Toph x The Duke one-shot


**A/N:** This one-shot just sort of…poured out of me. It wasn't something I expected to write, but I had fun with it.

A HUGE THANK YOU to my friend Emma for beta-reading this one for me.

**Disclaimer:** Avatar: TLA does not belong to me. Nor do the quotes at the beginning and end of this one-shot.

* * *

_"Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open." ~ John Barrymore_

:-:-:-:-:

Toph had never expected The Duke to be in her life beyond the few times their paths crossed during the war. He was a nice kid and all. Throughout their time undercover on a Fire Nation ship, he had engaged her in conversations and had always treated her _normally_. She didn't know if she would have called him a friend—not the way she did Aang, Sokka, and Katara, but she had enjoyed talking to him. He was a friendly, unassuming kid, and her appreciation for him shot upward when he cheerfully lent her his helmet during the invasion so she could throw up in it. (Really, how many people would do that for their best friend, let alone someone they weren't especially close to?) But she figured she wouldn't be seeing much of him after the war was over.

It was kind of funny how sometimes the smallest, least expected things could alter a person's life. Like a light-footed boy knocking her out of the earthbending ring one night and forever changing the course of her life.

Shortly after Zuko's coronation, she and the others went to Ba Sing Se to relax, enjoy each other's company, and drink gallons of Iroh's tea. They weren't the only ones to make the journey to Ba Sing Se. The Duke and Pipsqueak came to visit the city, too, and Toph wasn't sure what would have happened with her future if The Duke hadn't been in Iroh's tea shop on the day she got the letter from the Earth King.

Most of her friends were busy—with each other, and with love and romance and things that she wanted nothing to do with. She knew she was kind of the odd one out, but she was fine with that. In fact, if they were going to be all mushy and flirty, she preferred they do it somewhere that she didn't have to listen to it.

Since none of her friends was readily available, Toph got Iroh to read her the Earth King's letter, and once she heard what it said, she laughed. "The king wants _me_ to train his earthbenders?" She propped her feet on the table. "He apparently doesn't know how much I hate Ba Sing Se."

"Ba Sing Se has much potential," Iroh said. She could hear him pouring a cup of tea, and he pressed it into her hands. "There will be rebuilding to be done. Peace will not come easily to a war-stricken world."

"Doesn't mean I want to be _here_," she grumbled.

"It is pretty crowded." Toph felt the vibrations of The Duke's light footsteps moving over to her table before she heard his voice, and she turned her head in his direction as he sat down across from her. "Kinda makes me want to get out of here soon," he admitted.

"And where will you go?" Iroh asked.

Toph wasn't sure if he was talking to her, or The Duke, or both of them, but the truth was, she didn't know. She had been trying not to think too much about it. She knew that this was the end of something. There would be no more frenzied battles with the Fire Nation, no more fleeing from town to town and training Aang so that he would be strong enough to defeat the Firelord. Her companions would be going different ways. Zuko would be at the Fire Nation palace. There would be diplomatic trips, of course, but he had his duties now. Sokka and Katara had their home in the South Pole to return to, even though both of them would probably find their own paths and travels, too. And Aang would have a duty—not just a duty; she knew it would be Aang's desire—to travel the world and continue to work for peace.

It would probably be the kind of peace work that involved lots of parties, social interactions, and politics. Some of Toph's least favorite things.

"Pipsqueak's thinking about taking up work as a farmer," The Duke said. "His family did farming before he lost his home. I'm thinking about going with him. I don't know much about farming," he admitted, "but it can't be harder than building explosives with blasting jelly, right?"

"That is a very interesting way of viewing it," Iroh said.

"Yeah, but…I don't know." The Duke sighed and the table shook as he shifted against it. "It'll be weird having a home that's not always moving. But I guess if I don't like it, I can always find something else!"

Toph shook her head. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but she knew she didn't want to be stuck being told what to do, how to do it, what to wear, what was proper. She didn't want to be stifled, and Ba Sing Se was nothing but stifling. "I'll have to think about it," she said. She could do anything. She had helped the Avatar defeat the Firelord and bring peace to the world before her thirteenth birthday.

But maybe that was the point. She was twelve; did she really have to settle into something right away?

"You are always welcome here," Iroh said, and again, she wasn't sure if he was directing that at her or The Duke, but she suspected both.

And the next day, Pipsqueak and The Duke set off, but not before The Duke threw his arms around Toph and said, "Come visit sometime!"

:-:-:-:-:

She spent the first year wandering. Well, _wandering_ implied she didn't have a purpose, and she had lots of purposes. She helped her friends when they needed it, earthbended buildings and houses into place for people, banged a few heads together when it was needed, and watched as the world slowly, slowly began to put itself back together. She spent more time than she would have liked avoiding the hordes of rabid earthbending students who wanted her to teach them. Fame had its positive benefits, but it also had annoyances. Sometimes she wished she could go somewhere and _not_ be recognized. She wished random people would not seek her out or follow her to try to get her attention. It got old pretty quickly.

She didn't go home during that first year. She told herself she would, told herself that she would just see her parents and talk to them, but then something else always came up and she found excuses to put it on hold.

She visited her friends, but it was never for long. Katara and Aang were always traveling, and when they weren't, they were at the South Pole. It wasn't somewhere Toph was fond of visiting, being that it was all ice and snow and she was utterly blind there.

Sokka was on Kyoshi Island and always made time for her, but he was so busy with the start of his own family. (Besides, she had an aversion to babies. Maybe even an allergy. Screaming, smelly—she heard they were cute, but she wouldn't have known. They didn't _sound_ cute.)

Then, of course, she was always welcome at the Fire Nation palace, but it was full of constant politics and nobles, reminding her a little too much of all the things she was trying to avoid.

The first time she went to the farm, she was passing through the area and realized that it was close, so she figured she'd stop in and visit Pipsqueak and The Duke.

They welcomed her enthusiastically—and then put her to work. The Duke dragged her out to a field to pick wheat-corn, asking her about her journeys and telling her about the slow progress he and Pipsqueak had been making in establishing their farm.

"We hear about you sometimes," he told her as she felt the stalks of wheat-corn until she located the clusters of ripe grain. "People in the Earth Kingdom think you're the most amazing thing to come out of our country since…well, ever."

"Eh." Toph plucked a cluster of wheat-corn and dropped it into the basket at her feet before moving onto the next one. She was starting to get tense. She didn't know The Duke that well, but he had never acted weird around her because of anything—not her blindness or her earthbending talents. If he started in on her the way strangers did, she was out of there.

But all he said was, "I bet it gets really tiring."

She relaxed slightly. "You have no idea."

"After we're done here, I'll introduce you to Mimi. She's good at making all sorts of troubles a little better."

Toph was immediately wary again. "Who's Mimi?"

"A friend."

After their baskets were full, they carried them back to the house, and then The Duke took her into the barn and introduced her to Mimi. It turned out Mimi was the cat-rabbit that lived in the barn, and she wasn't alone—she had a whole litter of kits.

The Duke tugged on Toph's arm, pulling her down, and soon they were both lying flat on their backs with little kits hopping all over them. Toph grinned as their soft fur rubbed against her face and hands and as their rough tongues licked her cheek. One of the kits settled onto her chest and curled up contentedly. Toph felt it moving up and down with every breath that she took.

"Wow, she likes you. That kit doesn't ever let anyone near her," The Duke explained. "She's always kind of been the oddball cat-rabbit."  
_  
An oddball, hm? Guess that makes two of us,_ Toph thought as she stroked fingers over the kit's soft fur.

She spent the night in an earth tent outside of Pipsqueak and The Duke's house. They offered her a bed, but she turned them down. She was used to sleeping out in the open, on her comfortable bed of earth. The oddball cat-rabbit hopped into her tent and curled up at her side.

When Toph left the next morning—getting a clap on the shoulder from Pipsqueak and a hug from The Duke—she waved over her shoulder and called, "Take care of Oddball for me!"

She didn't realize until she was gone what a relief her time at the farm had been. No earthbenders hounding her, no one treating her with awe or hero-worship. She longed sometimes for the days when all she had to worry about was teaching Aang earthbending and avoiding getting burned to a crisp by the Fire Nation. Why did peace make her life so much more complicated?

:-:-:-:-:

Over the second year, Toph found herself stopping by the farm much more often. There was always a warm welcome waiting for her, as well as an enthusiastic cat-rabbit (which The Duke told her wouldn't answer to anything except "Oddball"). And there was always work to be done on the farm. It sure wasn't something she wanted to do on a regular basis, but there was still something comforting in the way The Duke would push a shovel in her hand and tell her they were mulching out the stables. Not many people in the world would try and succeed in getting Toph Bei Fong to do farm chores.

The Duke always had a cheerful outlook about everything. It reminded her a bit of Aang, but then he would say something like, "Sometimes I really miss blowing things up," and it was all him.

It was a refuge for her, much like Iroh's teashop in Ba Sing Se. They were places she could go when she needed normality, when she needed a home for a day or two. Even if she didn't always want it, Iroh and The Duke both quickly became people who not only gave her advice, but who knew how to do it. They never tried to tell her how to think or what to do or how to do it. They suggested and told her what they thought, but they let her come to her own conclusions. They also both had an uncanny way of getting straight to the heart of what was bothering her, _especially_, it seemed, when she just wanted to ignore it.

But in both her visits to Ba Sing Se or to the farming town in the south, she would never stay long. There were still things to be done. Houses to build for those who didn't have one. A group of dissidents who needed to be dealt with. Always something to keep her moving.

One day she went to visit the farm and realized that The Duke's voice was deeper than it had been when she last saw him, and that when he gave her his customary hug, he was just as tall as she was. When had that happened? Where had the time gone? Had it really been so long since the war ended?

"It's been two years, Toph," The Duke pointed out late that night. They had finished chores and were lying in the field behind the house. It had been plowed in preparation for late summer planting and the newly-turned earth smelled wonderful. It felt equally wonderful when Toph buried her toes in it and wiggled them around in the loose dirt. Oddball was lying on Toph's chest, much bigger and heavier now. Toph scratched her behind the ears as The Duke asked, "Don't you get tired of it?"

"Of what?" Toph dug her fingers into the dirt, too. The vibrations in the ground rippled through her as The Duke turned his head toward her.

"Of not having a home."

"I have a home," she replied.

"Yeah, wherever you stick up a tent for the night. Don't you get tired of moving around all the time?"

"I spent the first twelve years of my life trapped in one place," she reminded him. "I don't miss that."

"Mm." The Duke wasn't convinced.

Toph reached over and punched his arm. "Are you happy with this? Always being stuck in one place?"

"I'm not stuck. I decided to be here, and I could walk away any time I wanted to. In the beginning, it was harder, but I think I'm learning that sometimes there's freedom in being grounded." He nudged her leg with his. "You haven't even been back yet, have you? To see your parents."

"Iroh asked me the same thing the last time I went to see him. You know, my parents haven't come to see _me_, either."

"You're not always easy to find," The Duke pointed out. "Besides, maybe they think you don't want them to come."

Toph scoffed. "Or maybe I'm such a disgrace to them that they don't want anything to do with me. I may have helped save the world, but I'm still not a proper noble like they wanted me to be."

The Duke was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke, his voice was thoughtful. "At least you have parents so you can try to make peace. Maybe it _will_ be horrible to see them again, but you never know until you try. If nothing else, wouldn't you like to say goodbye? I don't even know my parents' names. The town where I was born was destroyed. I wouldn't even know where to go to say any sort of goodbyes."

"What about _your_ name?" Toph asked, both because she was curious and because she didn't want to talk about her parents anymore.

"I'm The Duke," he said simply. "I don't know how to be anyone else."

Toph understood, maybe more than either of them said. The Duke didn't know how to be anyone other than the boy who'd fought for freedom for so long, anymore than she knew how to go back toward anything to do with her old life.

Maybe they were more alike than she had ever considered. He was trying to find a life that was settled after years of disruption, and she was trying to live a life of disruption after years of being settled.

She wasn't sure how well either of them was succeeding at it.

:-:-:-:-:

Some time after that, she was chasing down a group of rebels who were plotting against the Alliance of Four Nations. She wasn't alone in her pursuit; this group had been eluding everyone for long enough that Aang and Katara joined Toph in tracking them down.

They had the group tracked and caught in no time, and after their successful mission, Toph camped out with Aang and Katara for a night. She leaned against Appa and rubbed her hand over his soft fur, and they talked and laughed about their lives.

Part of her was distracted, though, because they were camping so close to her hometown that she could have been at her parents' house within an hour. So why didn't she go see them? They wouldn't be able to lock her away—she didn't even know if they would want to. But what if they didn't want to see her? They would disapprove of her life, of course, but…

_"If nothing else, wouldn't you like to say goodbye?"_ The Duke's voice echoed through her head.

She was running out of excuses. She was running out of…being able to run.

Toph stayed up for a long time, and when she did finally fall asleep, she rested poorly. In the morning, Aang and Katara were getting ready to go their separate way when Toph said, "Wait." She hesitated, then continued, "I haven't really been home since I left to teach you earthbending."

Katara's voice was shocked. "Not at _all_?"

"I've sent letters," Toph said defensively, "but…" She shrugged and sighed. "Do you think you could come with me? It's not that I couldn't—"

"Of course," Aang said warmly. "We'd love to."

Toph punched his arm in thanks.

:-:-:-:-:

"I saw my parents," Toph told The Duke the next time she went to the farm. He was building a tree house for some neighbor kids ("brings back a lot of memories," he said a bit wistfully), and she was keeping both of her feet firmly on the ground, thank you very much. She leaned against the tree and listened to the sound of hammering above her.

The hammering stopped for a moment. "You did?"

"They were…happy to see me. Of course, Dad and I didn't exactly see eye to eye on my future, but I expected at least that. It went…better than I had thought it would."

"And they were happy to see you."

"Yeah." Toph picked at her fingernails. "I also got my yearly request from the Earth King to come train the earthbenders. They want to make me a _general_," she said, amused. "I think they're getting desperate."

A few more heavy hits with the hammer, and then the ground vibrated through Toph as The Duke jumped out of the tree and landed on his feet beside her. "General Toph Bei Fong. That's kind of a scary thought."

She hit him in the shoulder as he flopped against the tree next to her. He was going through another growth spurt; his arm wasn't as skinny as she remembered, and when he had hugged her upon her arrival, the top of her head had only come up to his chin. Of course, she seemed to be stunted where height was concerned, and he didn't seem to have that problem.

"Pipsqueak is getting married," The Duke said suddenly.

"He _is_?"

"You'll probably meet her at dinner if you stick around. She's nice. She lives in town."

"Wow. Good for him." She stood to her feet, testing the ground all around her to get a clearer picture of the landscape. "I think your tree house needs a cave underneath it." She jutted out her foot and pushed her hands forward until she had built the perfect cave, with a short tunnel underneath. She made sure it was sturdy and solid, and then dusted her hands in satisfaction. "Every kid should have a good cave."

"Good idea. They can make cave drawings or pretend to go exploring…or maybe go in search of a rare silver saber-tooth mooselion."

"Right," Toph said slowly.

"What, you never used your imagination in all of those caves you were in as a kid?"

"I was too busy learning how to earthbend," Toph told him. "And weren't you a little busy with freedom fighting when you were little?"

"Busy, sure, but I had fun. I used to pretend all the ropes in our tree houses were snakes and—you're looking at me like I'm crazy."

"Am I?" Toph turned away from the cave and in-progress tree house and struck out back toward the farm.

The Duke fell into step beside her. "So are you going to turn the Earth King down again?"

"Are you going to stay on the farm after Pipsqueak gets married?" she returned.

"There's no reason not to." There it was in his voice: a hint of wistfulness. It wasn't the first time she'd heard it, no matter how much he tried to hide it. As they rounded the path toward the farm, he changed the subject. "The annual Freedom Celebration in Ba Sing Se is next month. Are you going?"

"I don't know. I already have to go to the Four Nations' ball in a couple of weeks. It's being hosted at the Fire Nation palace this year."

"I haven't been back to the Fire Nation since the end of the war." There was the longing again—the longing of a boy who was still struggling with a normal life.

"Eh, there's not much there to see. Believe me, I'm an expert."

The Duke laughed.

"You want to come with me?" Toph asked off-handedly.

"Wh—I don't know. There's…work to get done and Pipsqueak—"

"Hey, I'm not pulling you by the hair or anything. You don't have to—"

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay, I'll come with you, but on one condition," The Duke said.

Toph's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What condition?"

"You have to agree to seriously consider the Earth King's offer."

_"What?"_

"I think," The Duke said thoughtfully, "that you are a little bit interested in being a general, having hordes of earthbenders to yell at—"

Toph pushed him and felt his stumbling footsteps resonate through the ground. "Maybe I should just take back my invitation to the party," she grumbled. She sighed. "Fine. I will _think_ about it."

After all…her sixteenth birthday was swiftly nearing. Maybe it was time to start considering possibilities outside of her nomadic life.

The next day when she left, she got Pipsqueak's pat on the shoulder and The Duke's hug. But this time, before he let her go, he pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. It shocked her so much that he walked away before she could give him her usual punch to the arm. Her face was hot as she turned away, and he called after her, "See you in two weeks!"

:-:-:-:-:

"Have you thought at all about the Earth King's offer?" The Duke asked on the way to the Fire Nation.

"I told you I would," Toph retorted.

"And?"

She shrugged a little. "I don't know. It's _Ba Sing Se._ But," she said, "I was thinking—what if we sort of lengthen our bargain?"

"What do you mean?"

She could not remember the last time she had ever felt so awkward. It was The Duke; she wasn't sure why this made her feel so strange. "Three months," she said brusquely. "If you will agree to leave the farm for three months—travel, visit some towns, whatever—then after that, I will do a trial run on the Earth King's offer. I'll tell him I'll give it three months and then make a final decision."

"Why do you want me to leave the farm?" The Duke asked curiously.

"Because I'm not convinced you're always happy with that life."

He was quiet. Part of her expected to ask why she cared, but all he finally said was, "It's a good life, Toph."

"So is mine."

Maybe he would understand, the way that she had for a long time, the similarities in their struggles of lifestyles. But more and more, she was surprised to find that she wasn't as worried over her own happiness as much as The Duke's.

She held out her hand toward him. "What do you say?"

His hand clasped hers. "Okay, but not until after Pipsqueak's wedding."

They shook on it.

:-:-:-:-:

The night of Pipsqueak's wedding, Toph stayed at the farm while The Duke prepared for his three-month journey. She was surprised, however, that when she was about to say goodbye to him in the morning, he asked, "So where are we going?"

"_We_?" she echoed.

"You want me to travel, and I don't know anyone better at that than you."

Toph opened her mouth, closed it, and kept her face turned toward him, wondering if the consternation she felt showed at all in the way her mouth was twisted. "There are crazy people always trying to get my attention."

"I think I can handle the Toph fans," he replied dryly.

_But I'm…used to traveling alone._ She dug her toes into the ground, sighed, and planted her hands on her hips. "If you slow me down—"

"—you'll leave me by the wayside," The Duke finished. "Got it."

He didn't slow her down. In fact, even though she was so unaccustomed to traveling with anyone else, she soon adjusted to his company. No, more than that—she enjoyed it. It was kind of funny how she could have staved off loneliness _until_ she had someone else with her and realized how truly alone she had been.

The Duke told her that the highlight of his three months was when he finally got to blow something up. He was helping her track a rogue Fire Nation ex-soldier bent on burning down a few things, and trapped him inside a deep cavern by blowing up the entrance.

"You know, genius," she told him once they had the man in custody, "I could have just _earthbended_ it shut."

"Yeah, I know. But wasn't that _fun_?"

:-:-:-:-:

When The Duke's three months of travel time were up, Toph held up her end of the bargain and trained earthbenders at the palace. Again, The Duke came with her, saying he was going to take Iroh up on his offer to stay at the Jasmine Dragon and help out there while Toph was completing her side of things.

Toph refused to stay at the palace during nights, even though she'd been offered a whole wing of the place as her own. Nor did she want anything to do with the fancy house in Ba Sing Se's rich area. Instead, she crashed on the hard floor of Iroh's apartment. The Duke was using the only extra room, and she didn't want to sleep in a bed anyway.

The Duke brought Oddball with them. "Couldn't bring her while we were traveling, but you know she misses you," he told Toph. And at night, Toph enjoyed having Oddball tucked up next to her. It reminded her of having Momo during her travels with Aang.

She found it difficult to sit still, to not leave Ba Sing Se. It was much, much harder than she had thought it would be. It did make it easy for her friends to find her—she got a visit from Aang and Katara, and another one from Sokka and his eldest daughter. (Toph was relieved that said daughter was past the constant screeching stage. Still very loud, but not screeching.)

She was sure that she wouldn't have made it a week in Ba Sing Se if she hadn't promised to stay, and if Iroh and The Duke weren't there. But she slowly began to find that having both of them around all the time made things much more bearable. Not just bearable, but happy.

She also had to admit that she did find satisfaction in bellowing at all of the would-be earthbenders at the King's palace. ("Straighten your stances! Keep your knees high! I've been doing these moves since I was half your age; what is the _matter_ with you?")

"Merciless," The Duke said after watching one of her sessions at the palace one day.

"Even Aang was better than them in the beginning!" she retorted.

"Aang is the Avatar," The Duke pointed out.

Toph waved her hand dismissively. "Big deal. He was still just a kid."

They headed back to Iroh's tea shop. "Your three months are almost up," he said conversationally.

Toph elbowed him in the ribs. "I know how to count days." She stepped around a cart where a merchant was calling out to sell his cabbages. "I guess you'll be going back to the farm." She said it casually, but something in her chest twisted when she thought about that.

"Maybe. And I guess you'll be leaving those earthbenders at the palace hanging."

"They'd deserve it," she grumbled.

But…

_As much as Ba Sing Se is crowded and all about rules and it's loud…it's been a good few months, hasn't it? Being with The Duke and Iroh, and knowing when I wake up in the morning they're going to be there._

_I just…_

"Don't know," she whispered under her breath.

The Duke was quiet until they were almost to the Jasmine Dragon, and then he stopped and cleared his throat. "What if we…lengthened our bargain again?"

She crossed her arms. "What do you mean?"

"Who says that we can't have both? A home _and_ time to journey? What if," he suggested, "we stay in Ba Sing Se and travel at least a couple of times a month. Go capture people bent on destroying peace and justice and all that. Find something to blow up—er, or earthbend. You know. Stuff like that."

That sounded…very appealing, actually. "I heard an awful lot of 'we' in there. What about Pipsqueak?"

"He's got plenty to keep him occupied. Besides…I wouldn't want to miss seeing the evil grin on your face as you whip those earthbenders into shape."

They reached the edge of the Jasmine Dragon and Toph could hear Iroh inside, talking to one of the customers. It would make him happy, too, she knew, if she and The Duke were to stay. They were all fine on their own…all capable of living their own lives and finding company in those around them.

Except _happy_ was a far cry from _fine,_ and maybe that was what she and The Duke had been trying to get across to each other for several years now.

Maybe they had been trying to get it across to themselves, too.

"I'll think about it," she said, "on one condition."

"Okay. I'll do it."

"You haven't even heard what it is yet."

The Duke shifted on his feet toward her and touched his lips to hers, quick and light and sending a jolt straight down to her toes. "Don't you know by now," he told her quietly, "that it doesn't matter?"

She didn't know if she could get her voice to work long enough to give him a sarcastic comment, so she did the next best thing. She hit him in the arm as hard as she could. Though she couldn't see it, she was sure he was grinning at her.

_**~ FIN ~**_

:-:-:-:-:

_"Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." ~ Norman Macewan_


End file.
